Gallery: Roth and Jackson victorious at the Choices Markets Criterium

The Tour of White Rock started on Saturday with the Choices Markets Criterium. It was a Canadian sweep with Ryan Roth of Silber Pro Cycling winning the men’s race while Alison Jackson took victory in the women’s event.

The men’s race was light up when Christopher Hatz (Hermann Radteam) took off solo with more than half of the 60-lap, 60 km race remaining. The dangerous move drew out Rally Cycling’s Eric Young and Silber’s Roth. The three riders joined forces and lapped the field on the 27th lap. “First, I made it alone, but then Eric and Ryan joined me,” explained Hatz. “It worked quite well, we had a good group and I didn’t expect that we’d lap the field so fast.”

With three laps remaining the field sprinted for minor placings but a crash would effect the outcome of the race for the three men leading. Hatz crashed, Young was forced off course and Roth was left solo to ride out the remaining laps to victory. “I was just marking Eric and Chris, knowing that we would separate ourselves anyway and then the crash happened, I was just behind it and happened to weave through, so it was just luck,” explained Roth.

Young scooped up his seventh podium of BC Superweek finishing second though was unable to add to his tally of four wins this year. “I didn’t really want Hatz up there without one of our guys, so I just got on it. It turned into a good move with Ryan up there too, then we all contributed, drilled it hard, and about halfway through the race caught the back,” Young said. “I was excited, it’s a fun way to race, you only get to lap the field with just two other guys occasionally. I was looking forward to the finish, but it didn’t really pan out.”

Roth, who was also the winner of the Tour de White Rock Road Race in 2016, spoke about Silber finally getting a break after crashes earlier in the week. “We had two of our best guys crash on the first weekend and they didn’t race until today, so luck goes both ways. Tomorrow is a super hard race and I’m looking forward to it.”

Following the success of Kendall Ryan earlier in the weekend thanks in part to the help of her teammates, Alison Jackson got her chance to contest the win with the teams lead sprinter preparing to head to Europe. In 2014, Jackson tasted success at the Tour of White Rock which helped to jump start her pro career and on Saturday she once again stood on the top step of the podium.

“White Rock was my first win ever, it got me my first pro contract, and my career really snowballed from there. Races like this where you put the pro women with the local girls are a great opportunity,” said Jackson. “I think it’s so cool that there were a couple of juniors that are local here riding, they’ll learn from this opportunity and soak it in. It’s really cool for me to be leading in the Tour de White Rock and we’re looking for a good, hard, hot day in the road race tomorrow.”

Second to Jackson was Ariane Bonhomme riding for The Cyclery which annually sends a competitive team to BC Superweek.  “This is our second podium [at BC Superweek] and we’re happy about that. It was a hard race and that always gives me an advantage a little bit, so I was really going for it. The team was really supporting me and I’m really happy with their teamwork and it worked out,” she said.

Maggie Coles-Lyster from Maple Ridge, B.C. podiumed for the third straight race, a big step forward for the 19-year-old.  “So far this BC Superweek has been my best,” Coles-Lyster said, “I’ve had two podiums so tonight I was hoping for that win, but my goal was to just come out and race aggressively, follow moves, and see where I could end up.”

The 2018 edition of BC Superweek concludes on Sunday with the Tour de White Rock road race.